Sabretooth – Sabretooth 3 (Sabretooth)

Get it from: Amazon

With last year’s Tek Stream a killer release on Scythe Squadron, and 2424 on Scythe 09 none too shabby either, Ben Fraser’s been busy under his own name. But what of Sabretooth, his finely honed psytrance alias? The answer is the functionally named but totally superb Sabretooth 3, where the Sheffield dark destroyer brings out the big guns, displaying his well-earned reputation for exquisitely crafted, thrillingly hard tracks. A proper album in the good old-fashioned sense of the word, Sabretooth 3 is sequenced to build. If you’re plundering it for a mix there’s plenty of ammo here – with the exception of the punk track 20 Dollar Bill, there isn’t a track on the album that doesn’t flat-out rock – but it also rewards the complete run-through thanks to a constantly shifting palette of styles. Compared to what’s to come, the almost Goan opening of Mulu (145 BPM) is a gentle introduction; Confession Driver (143 BPM) uses a sample from American Psycho and tribal chants to add a creeping sense of dread then adds disorientating whirling, backwards sound effects, layering the lot into an epic, intense mid-album highlight. The rules change for Drive On (137 BPM), a tougher track with more emphasis on tribal drumming. 20 Dollar Bill is a punk track and – well, it is what it is, I suppose. It disrupts the mood – the mood being trippy, hard, banging psytrance – but it also acts as a palette cleanser for an outstanding run of three tracks: Manipulated Being (148 BPM), Hellfire (150 BPM) and Trak 2 (147 BPM). All of them shine but it’s Trak 2 that really brings the noise, layering riff upon riff towards a devastating breakdown that features a brilliantly placed sample of Withnail screaming, ‘My head’s gone numb!’. You and me both.

Some links:
Sabretooth Soundcloud
Sabretooth website

Various – Scythe 09 (Scythe Squadron)

Cat no: Scythe 09
Get it from: Stay Up Forever

Tomei Kosoku  – Ant & K.N & DJ Nakahara
BPM: 142
Joined by record store owner DJ Nakahara and inspired by the Tomei Kosoku Toro expressway in Japan (probably), KN delivers a trancey, evocative tune underpinned by Powertools-friendly Ant music. The result is a perfect mix of techno power and hard trance melody, a Trans Europe Express for the harder generation, and the pick of the EP.

2424 – Ben Fraser
BPM: 144
Ben ‘Sabretooth’ Fraser returns with a ripsnorting hard trance track featuring multiple duelling acid lines that build and build to a series of peaks. As ever with Sabretooth tunes, it has a silky feel to it but rocks like a bastard, and that ascending 303 gives it an addictive quality.

Bang Your Bitch – Osmo
BPM: 145
A fat power riff kicks things off and sounds frankly stunning burbling away menacingly until the ‘Bang Your Bitch’ sample appears. The fact that it’s sampled from the Russell Brand film Get Him to the Greek slightly undoes the dark work done by that awesome riff in my opinion, but it’s still a welcome change of pace for the EP.

All 2011, All Acid Techno Mix

Here’s a mix I made of… well, it’s a bit daft to say it’s the ‘best’ Acid Techno of 2011 so far, since I can’t possibly presume to be familiar with it all but this is the best Acid Techno of 2011 that I’ve heard, at least.

The tracklisting is…

D.A.V.E The Drummer - Acid In The Box
D.A.V.E The Drummer & Chris Liberator - Twinkle Toes
Jamie C - Shitbag
Sterling Moss - Never Give In
A.P - Can't Get Enough
Syndrome – MFT (D.A.V.E. The Drummer Remix)
Austin Corrosive - The Drums
Ben Fraser - Tek Stream
Nitronoise - Missed F*ck
DDR And James Kinetic - The Cross Joint
D.A.V.E. The Drummer & Tassid - Keep It Going
Sterling Moss - Rock N Rolla
Chris Liberator & Darc Marc - Happy Birthday LSD
Nitronoise - Acid Crumble
A.P - Ride It
D.A.V.E The Drummer - Stop The System
Chris Liberator, Sterling Moss & Maxx - Deadly Swine
Hectech - Lock'n Loud